Don’t know if you can say the new census statistics are worse than lies and damn lies. They are sobering to all who believe that opportunity and a ration of equality make our country great.
Data analyzed by the Pew Research Center show that the recession has wreaked havoc on the wealth of all Americans but that whites lost the least amount as a percentage of their holdings. The decline in median net worth between 2005-09:
– Hispanic households – 66 percent (to $6,325 from $18,359)
– African-American households – 53 percent (to $5,677 from $12,124)
– White households – 16 percent (to $113,149 from $134,992)
The median net worth of a white family now stands at 20 times that of a black family and 18 times that of a Hispanic family — roughly twice the gap that existed before the recession and the biggest gap since data began being collected in 1984.
(Household wealth is the sum of assets, including houses, cars and banking accounts, minus debts, including mortgages, auto loans and credit cards.)